Leopard....Hows it going?

Author
Discussion

BigMansZetec

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

208 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
quotequote all
Ok, so a few months have passed since Apple released Leopard. There was obviously well documented problems when Microsoft brough out Vista, but I have very little negativity about Leopard.

I am thinking about upgrading my Mac Mini (Intel 2GB) to it over the weekend and wondered if there is anything I need to look out for now that people have had a chance to play around with it.

Also, is boot camp as easy as Apple make out?

Cheers
Will

Zod

35,295 posts

259 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
quotequote all
boot camp is indeed easy.

My migration has been largely trouble-free on MacMini and MacBook Pro.

Zod

35,295 posts

259 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
quotequote all
then again, so has been my migration to Vista.

PJR

2,616 posts

213 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
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Bootcamp is a doddle.. Im not really a techy person when it comes to computers, but if i can use it, anyone can.
I would also recommend Parallels software, should you ever need to run both OS's at once. Again, its easy to set up and use.

Leopard in my experience has been fine. There are reports of bugs, but i've come across next to none. Just some minor problems with one or two 3rd party apps that need to be updated, but this of course isn't directly Leopards fault.
I didn't really like the new Dock in Leopard, but this was quite easy to change. Leopard also appears to have memory issues, in that it eats noticeably more of the stuff than Tiger ever did. So I suspect there is a memory leak someplace. I don't doubt that Apple will soon have this addressed in a update however.
Either way, its running very nicely on 2 Macs here, so i'd recommend it smile

P,

AndyWoodall

2,625 posts

260 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
quotequote all
Going great here, haven't had a single issue so far. Touch white polycarbonate.

I haven't been able to install it on my old G4 Powerbook (due to a busted optical drive) which I keep around and to be honest I already hate going back into Tiger, the Finder changes alone make the upgrade worth it.

I love the new dock and I even like the translucent menu bar at the top, in pictures it doesn't work but in actual use it is a bit of UI genius. If you notice, if you want to look at it its there but should you be looking at another part of the screen it blends away leaving the main active window more distinctive. KInd of hard to describe but I think its really clever.

Speed wise it flies on my 2.4 MacBook Pro, am very pleased with the upgrade from TIger. My ancient version of Office is the most sluggish thing, takes quite awhile to launch but once up and running its fine.

Downsides, well I'm not sure I'm bothered about coverflow in the finder, works well for photos though. Quicklook is handy, nice little tool. I'd have been happy paying the £85 odd RRP, but for the £5.95 up-to-date upgrade its a bargain!




cyberface

12,214 posts

258 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
quotequote all
Play by Apple's relatively recent rules and Leopard is indeed a great OS.

However if you are an OS X hacker, or have a system that's been upgraded from 10.0 public beta through to 10.5 with all species of big cat in between, then I recommend a complete fresh re-install.

Certain classes of software (notably InputManager type stuff and SIMBL) won't play nice with Leopard. Big installs of opensource ports (DarwinPorts / MacPorts / Fink) cause problems. There are **still** network issues with the Finder (FTFF, Apple, FFS). There are some major (and very cool) changes to underlying APIs but there's a lot still undocumented (where did my NFS shares go, for example, and the method normally used to get them back didn't work... lots of dicking about and a regular 'Bug: launchd_core_logic.c' console error got them working (just) again...

So here's your sample of one relatively unhappy user of Leopard client 10.5.1 (hardware - quad G5, 4.5 GB ram, twin striped Raptor SATA suicide raid, twin 30" screens) - but I'm not a 'normal' Mac user so probably best taking my experience as a bit of an outlier.

On the other hand, upgrading my Tiger Server webserver box to Leopard Server worked perfectly and has been perfectly stable since (no downtime since 10.5.1 update) - but that was a vanilla Tiger Server install to begin with. I'm too damn scared to upgrade my mail server since that's business critical....

BigMansZetec

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

208 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
quotequote all
Thanks for all the comments.

Sounds like it is a worthwhile investement. I only really use it as an entertainment machine, photos, internet, music etc so I hope I won't encounter any major problems.

Have been looking at some of its new features, and I do like the additions of things like cover flow, I have used it on my iPod Touch, and think Time machine sounds good, espeically for backing up music and photos.

Well, I think I know what I will be doing this weekend.

cheers guys

off_again

12,388 posts

235 months

Thursday 13th December 2007
quotequote all
My upgrade has been perfect. I suffered a couple of crashes of Safari (upgraded to the beta before the OS upgrade). Other than that, not a single issue. Very happy and very pleased with the updated OS.

I would recommend the upgrade as I have been very happy.

RoadRailer

599 posts

229 months

Friday 14th December 2007
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Leopard as a mail server has been fine on a 1.66ghz mini with 2g RAM.
No issues in the logs. Been up since the .1 update. Numpty proof to set up too!

BigMansZetec

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

208 months

Saturday 15th December 2007
quotequote all
Well that really couldn't have been much simpler. Only problem was that safari wouldn't launch from the dock, but worked from a different location, and is all fine now.

Next challenge is Boot Camp when I find an XP disc.

cyberface

12,214 posts

258 months

Saturday 15th December 2007
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RoadRailer said:
Leopard as a mail server has been fine on a 1.66ghz mini with 2g RAM.
No issues in the logs. Been up since the .1 update. Numpty proof to set up too!
Did you upgrade from a Tiger install with SSL certs for secure IMAP / SMTP and large inboxes with multiple aliases / domains?

Or was this a fresh install on a formatted disk?

RoadRailer

599 posts

229 months

Sunday 16th December 2007
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cyberface said:
RoadRailer said:
Leopard as a mail server has been fine on a 1.66ghz mini with 2g RAM.
No issues in the logs. Been up since the .1 update. Numpty proof to set up too!
Did you upgrade from a Tiger install with SSL certs for secure IMAP / SMTP and large inboxes with multiple aliases / domains?

Or was this a fresh install on a formatted disk?
Upgrade from tiger. a dozen or so virtual domains, max mailbox size 150meg and only three SSl certs. Hardly big blue but not a vanilla install.

CommanderJameson

22,096 posts

227 months

Sunday 16th December 2007
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cyberface said:
I'm too damn scared to upgrade my mail server since that's business critical....
Bah, don't be such a big puff!

Take two copies, upgrade one of them, see what it smells like. If the copy smells good, blat it over the top of your live system.